Women shaping Europe’s future: Applications open for 2027 innovation prize

As Innovators Magazine celebrates ten years of championing change, we look back on a decade of connecting with Europe’s innovators, reporting from global summits, engaging with policymakers and creating opportunities for women and young changemakers.

Innovation has always been about more than ideas. It is about the people who bring them to life, the stories that make their work resonate, and the connections that turn individual ambition into collective progress.

Over the past decade, building Innovators Magazine has been a creative journey shaped by meeting inspiring people, discovering ideas with the potential to change the world, and finding new ways to bring those stories to life. From international summits and conversations with influential figures to speaking in the European Parliament, producing special editions and creating our own awards, the work has taken many forms — always with the ambition to help innovation reach further.

That ambition has meant creating opportunities, not just telling stories. Through our Global Game Changers awards, the Impact Communications Programme for young women, and our coverage of people driving change across Europe, we have worked to bring new voices into the conversation, celebrate those making a difference and help the next generation find its place.

It’s a belief that has shaped every part of this journey: innovation flourishes when we tell its stories, build its communities and create opportunities for more people to shape what comes next.

Reporting from the heart of European innovation

Being part of the innovation community means getting beyond the headlines to understand the people, ideas and ambitions shaping the future. Over the years, I’ve met entrepreneurs, researchers, policymakers and changemakers, shared their stories and found creative ways to connect their work with wider audiences.

Our coverage has explored the people and ideas shaping Europe’s innovation future, from conversations with European Commission leaders to reporting on the opportunities and challenges facing entrepreneurs. In Changemakers are flocking to the new world of EU innovation, I explored the role of research and innovation in Europe’s green and digital transitions.

The work has also taken me into the European Parliament in Brussels, where I spoke at the European Innovation Summit and signed the Pact for Innovation as a media partner of Knowledge4Innovation. These experiences reinforced the importance of connecting the people developing new solutions with the institutions, networks and decision-makers that can help them make a greater impact.

Our involvement in the European innovation community continued through events and editorial collaborations. A special edition of the magazine was presented to Mariya Gabriel, then European Commissioner for Innovation, bringing together ideas from people, start-ups, companies and organisations working towards a climate-neutral Europe. You can read more about this work in Magazine signs European Pact for Innovation and Be part of the European Innovation Area Summit 2023.

Our editorial work has never been confined to one sector. Through coverage of multiple UN climate COPs, including COP28, and our wider reporting on sustainability and the future, we have explored how innovation can contribute to tackling some of the biggest challenges facing people and the planet.

We have also produced special editions that bring influential voices and forward-looking ideas to readers, including World Future Forum: A New Beginning. These projects offer the opportunity to move beyond the daily news cycle, explore ideas in greater depth and bring together perspectives that can help shape the debate.

For me, storytelling is at its best when it does more than document progress. It helps people discover one another, makes important work visible and creates connections that might otherwise never happen.

The value of building that space is reflected in a message from Bertrand Piccard, explorer and president of the Solar Impulse Foundation, included in our 10th Anniversary Edition.

“Over the past ten years, Innovators Magazine has built a trusted space where ideas, technologies and stories converge to inspire and give hope into a sustainable future,” he writes.

Piccard also recognises the magazine’s role in supporting the Foundation’s mission to bring practical environmental solutions to wider attention, highlighting how we have helped by “bringing them to light in order to accelerate their adoption”.

His message ends with a powerful call for us to keep “empowering the voices and solutions that are essential for a more efficient world” — a sentiment that captures the ambition behind Innovators Magazine: not simply to report on innovation, but to help ideas travel further, connect with the right people and turn promising solutions into real-world impact.

Creating opportunities, not just covering them

That same principle has shaped the work we have undertaken through Innovators Magazine.

Our Global Game Changers awards created a platform recognising innovators advancing the UN Sustainable Development Goals, with a dedicated Women in Innovation category. Bringing people together to celebrate their achievements was an opportunity to do more than report on the innovation ecosystem: it allowed us to help build one, connecting changemakers and giving their work a stage.

Our coverage, including Awards champion women in innovation, reflects the importance of recognising women whose work is helping shape a better future. Creating our own awards also gave us the opportunity to bring people together around that ambition and celebrate achievements that deserve a wider audience.

We have also worked to make participation in the innovation conversation more accessible to younger people. Through our Impact Communications Programme, developed in partnership with OnePoint5Media, we created opportunities for women under 25 to develop their communications skills, contribute ideas and engage with initiatives and events focused on positive change.

The programme gave young women opportunities to gain practical experience, build confidence and put their own ideas into action. Participants could contribute to magazine content, engage with events and connect with people and projects across the international sustainability and innovation community.

It reflects something I have always believed: the next generation should not simply be an audience for conversations about the future. Young people need opportunities to participate in them, develop their own voices and help influence what happens next.

From our own awards and development programmes to our reporting, partnerships and special editorial projects, the aim has been consistent — to champion people with ideas, connect them with wider audiences and help create the conditions in which innovation can flourish.

Why visibility matters for women innovators

The European Prize for Women Innovators is an important part of that wider picture.

Led jointly by the European Innovation Council (EIC) and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the annual prize recognises women entrepreneurs whose innovations are creating positive change for people and the planet.

My engagement with Europe’s innovation community has gone beyond reporting on its achievements. I’ve attended events, taken part in workshops and met the entrepreneurs and innovators behind the ideas. At the European Innovation Council Summit in Brussels, for example, I took part in a Dragon’s Den-style pitching workshop, exploring how entrepreneurs can communicate their ideas, make their case to investors and turn ambition into opportunity. I shared some of those insights in How to make the perfect Dragon’s Den pitch.

These first-hand experiences have helped shape how I approach innovation storytelling: by getting involved, listening to the people doing the work and finding ways to bring their ideas to a wider audience.

That same approach informs our coverage of the European Prize for Women Innovators and its previous winners. In How to become a top EU women innovator, Maria Fátima Lucas shared her experience of winning the award, offering insight into the journey and encouraging other women to showcase their innovative projects.

Stories like hers show why recognition matters. It makes role models more visible, helps innovative work reach new audiences and can inspire others to pursue their own ideas.

Yet talent alone does not guarantee that an entrepreneur will receive the recognition, investment or opportunities needed to grow. Visibility matters. So do networks, role models and initiatives that challenge assumptions about who an innovator looks like and where the next breakthrough might come from.

That is why celebrating women innovators is about more than an awards ceremony. It is about helping their achievements reach new audiences, encouraging more women to take the next step and showing the next generation what is possible.

These stories and initiatives are connected by a common purpose: making innovation more inclusive, bringing overlooked stories into the spotlight and creating opportunities for more people to contribute to the future they want to see.

Applications open for the 2027 European Prize for Women Innovators

Applications are now open for the 2027 European Prize for Women Innovators, with awards across three categories.

• Women Innovators: €100,000 for the winner, €70,000 for second place and €50,000 for third place.
• Rising Innovators: €50,000 for the winner, €30,000 for second place and €20,000 for third place. This category is for women under 35.
• EIT Women Leadership: €50,000 for the winner, €30,000 for second place and €20,000 for third place.

The prizes recognise women whose entrepreneurial achievements and innovative ventures are helping drive positive change. The winners are expected to be announced in June 2027.

The deadline for applications is 1 December 2026 at 17:00 CET.

Find the eligibility requirements and application details on the European Innovation Council website.

For me, this is about more than another call for entries. It connects with a decade of meeting people moving innovation forward, telling their stories, creating platforms that help them connect, and opening up opportunities for others to follow.

Europe’s future will be shaped by the ideas we support and the people we make room for. The women entering this year’s Prize deserve to be seen, heard and celebrated. Their work could help shape what comes next.

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